Few moments in history are as stirring as the Allied liberation of Paris. Yet few people are aware of how narrowly, and how miraculously, the city escaped Hitler's secret plan to reduce it to ashes. Is Paris Burning? reconstructs, in meticulous and riveting detail, the network of fateful events, day by day, moment by moment, that saved the City of Light.

Verdict on Vichy: Power and Prejudice in the Vichy France Regim

This masterful audiobook is the first comprehensive reappraisal of the Vichy France regime for over 20 years. France was occupied by Nazi Germany between 1940 and 1944, and the exact nature of France's role in the Vichy years is only now beginning to come to light. One of the main reasons that the Vichy history is difficult to tell is that some of France's most prominent politicians, including President Mitterand, have been implicated in the regime. This has meant that public access to key documents has been denied and it is only now that an objective analysis is possible.

When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light under German Occupation, 1940-1944

On June 14, 1940, German tanks entered a silent and nearly deserted Paris. Eight days later, France accepted a humiliating defeat and foreign occupation. Subsequently, an eerie sense of normalcy settled over the City of Light. Many Parisians keenly adapted themselves to the situation - even allied themselves with their Nazi overlords. At the same time, amidst this darkening gloom of German ruthlessness, shortages, and curfews, a resistance arose.

Combat Crew: The Story of 25 Combat Missions over Europe from the Daily Journal of a B-17 Gunner

John Comer kept a journal of the 25 missions he flew in 1943, when the casualty rate on his base was close to 80 percent. His book is handwritten history, recorded within hours after the battles occurred. Comer vividly creates his experiences as top-turret gunner/flight engineer in a B-17 squadron that was thrown against the best pilots the Luftwaffe could offer.

O Jerusalem: Day by Day and Minute by Minute the Historic Struggle for Jerusalem and the Birth of Israel

O Jerusalem! is the epic drama of 1948, when Arabs and Jews fought for control of the city of Jerusalem. This story traverses centuries and continents, covering the time between WWII and the creation of the independent state of Israel. Based on five years of intensive research and thousands of interviews, this is a story of courage, terrorism, heroism, and ultimately, war.

France on the Brink, Second Edition

A renowned journalist shows us France as never before seen, and the view will chill and electrify anyone who loves - or loves to hate - the country that not only defined culture but gave us the word itself. The traditional leader in the arts, letters, cuisine, and fashion, France embodies universally admired ideals of political expression and personal freedom. But France's heritage, combined with its glorious history, has also created delusions of grandeur - the Gaullist conviction that France will always be an "exception".

Target Tokyo: The Story of the Sorge Spy Ring

Richard Sorge was dispatched to Tokyo in 1933 to serve the spymasters of Moscow. For eight years, he masqueraded as a Nazi journalist and burrowed deep into the German embassy, digging for the secrets of Hitler's invasion of Russia and the Japanese plans for the East. In a nation obsessed with rooting out moles, he kept a high profile - boozing, womanizing, and operating entirely under his own name.

Potsdam: The End of World War II and the Remaking of Europe

After Germany's defeat in World War II, Europe lay in tatters. Millions of refugees were dispersed across the continent. Food and fuel were scarce. Britain was bankrupt while Germany had been reduced to rubble. In July 1945, Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin gathered in a quiet suburb of Berlin to negotiate a lasting peace - a peace that would finally put an end to the conflagration that had started in 1914, a peace under which Europe could be rebuilt.

Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris

This is the Paris you never knew. From the Revolution to the present, Graham Robb has distilled a series of astonishing true narratives, all stranger than fiction. A young artillery lieutenant, strolling through the Palais-Royal, observes disapprovingly the courtesans plying their trade. A particular woman catches his eye; nature takes its course. Later that night, Napoleon Bonaparte writes a meticulous account of his first sexual encounter....

The Last 100 Days: The Tumultuous and Controversial Story of the Final Days of World War II in Europe

A dramatic countdown of the final months of World War II in Europe, The Last 100 Days brings to life the waning power and the ultimate submission of the Third Reich. To reconstruct the tumultuous hundred days between Yalta and the fall of Berlin, John Toland traveled more than 100,000 miles in twenty-one countries and interviewed more than six hundred people - from Hitler's personal chauffeur to Generals von Manteuffel, Wenck, and Heinrici.

Roosevelt and Stalin: Portrait of a Partnership

Susan Butler's brilliantly listenable audiobook firmly places FDR where he belongs, as the American president engaged most directly in diplomacy and strategy, who not only had an ambitious plan for the postwar world but had the strength, ambition, and personal charm to overcome Churchill's reluctance and Stalin's suspicion to bring about what was, in effect, an American peace and to avoid the disastrous consequences that followed the botched peace of Versailles in 1919.

The Ultimate Battle: Okinawa 1945: The Last Epic Struggle of World War II

The Ultimate Battle is the full story of the largest land-sea-air battle ever waged by the United States, a battle whose staggering casualties and take-no-prisoners ferocity led Truman to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. From April through June 1945, more than 250,000 American and Japanese lives were lost, including those of nearly 150,000 civilians who either committed suicide or were caught in the crossfire. This book tells a gripping story of heroism, sacrifice, and death.

Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France

High up in the mountains of the southern Massif Central in France lie tiny, remote villages united by a long and particular history. During the Second World War, the inhabitants of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and its parishes saved thousands wanted by the Gestapo: resisters, Freemasons, communists, and, above all, Jews, many of them orphans whose parents had been deported to concentration camps.

September Hope: The American Side of a Bridge Too Far

In September Hope, acclaimed historian John C. McManus explores World War II’s most ambitious invasion, an immense, daring offensive to defeat Nazi Germany before the end of 1944. Operation Market-Garden is one of the war’s most famous, but least understood, battles, and McManus tells the story of the American contribution to this crucial phase of the war in Europe.

The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945

This Pulitzer Prize-winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the author’s words, "a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened - muddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox."

Battle: The Story of the Bulge

Battle: The Story of the Bulge, John Toland's first work of military history, recounts the saga of beleaguered American troops as they resisted Hitler's deadly counter offensive in World War II's Battle of the Bulge - and turned it into an Allied victory. It is a gripping work, painstakingly researched and imbued with such vivid detail that listeners will feel as though they themselves witnessed these events. This is a book not to be missed by anyone interested in this tumultuous era of our world's history.

Beyond the Call: The True Story of One World War II Pilot's Covert Mission to Rescue POWs on the Eastern Front

Near the end of World War II, thousands of Allied ex-POWs were abandoned to wander the war-torn Eastern Front. With no food, shelter, or supplies, they were an army of dying men. The Red Army had pushed the Nazis out of Russia. As they advanced across Poland, the prison camps of the Third Reich were discovered and liberated. In defiance of humanity, the freed Allied prisoners were discarded without aid.

One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War

In October 1962, at the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union appeared to be sliding inexorably toward a nuclear conflict over the placement of missiles in Cuba. Veteran Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs has pored over previously untapped American, Soviet, and Cuban sources to produce the most authoritative book yet on the Cuban missile crisis.

Chasing Gold: The Incredible Story of How the Nazis Stole Europe's Bullion

In the highly anticipated new book from the best-selling author of Judgment of Paris,George M. Taber reveals the integral role gold played in World War II, from its influence on the Nazi war machine to the ultimate triumph by the Allies and the fall of Berlin.

Americans in Paris: Life and Death under Nazi Occupation

In Americans in Paris, tales of adventure, intrigue, passion, deceit, and survival unfold season by season as renowned journalist Charles Glass tells the story of a remarkable cast of expatriates and their struggles in Nazi Paris. Before the Second World War began, approximately thirty thousand Americans lived in Paris, and when war broke out in 1939 almost five thousand remained.

Sterling Point Books: The Sinking of the Bismarck: The Deadly Hunt

The Bismark was the greatest warship ever built, with guns so powerful and accurate it could destroy an enemy ship while safely staying outside the line of fire. But the Allies had to sink it...or risk losing the war. William Shirer, famed World War II correspondent and author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, captures every suspenseful moment of the perilous mission.

The Pale House: Gregor Reinhardt, Book 2

German intelligence officer Captain Gregor Reinhardt has just been reassigned to the Feldjaegerkorps - a new branch of the military police with far-reaching powers. His position separates him from the friends and allies he has made in the last two years. And he needs them now more than ever. While retreating through Yugoslavia with the rest of the army, Reinhardt witnesses a massacre of civilians by the dreaded Ustaše - only to discover that there is more to the incident than anyone believes.

Paris Reborn: Napoléon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Quest to Build a Modern City

Traditionally known as a dirty, congested, and dangerous city, 19th Century Paris was transformed in an extraordinary period from 1848 to 1870, when the government launched a huge campaign to build streets, squares, parks, churches, and public buildings. The Louvre Palace was expanded, Notre-Dame Cathedral was restored and the French masterpiece of the Second Empire, the Opra Garnier, was built.

If Chaos Reigns: The Near-Disaster and Ultimate Triumph of the Allied Airborne Forces on D-Day, June 6, 1944

So said Brigadier S. James Hill, commanding officer of the British 3rd Parachute Brigade, in an address to his troops shortly before the launching of Operation Overlord - the D-Day invasion of Normandy. No more prophetic words were ever spoken, for chaos indeed reigned on that day, and many more that followed.

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City

Fordlandia by National Book Award finalist Greg Grandin tells the enthralling tale of Henry Ford’s failed attempts to transform a Connecticut-sized chunk of Brazilian rainforest into a homespun slice of American utopia.

Publisher's Summary

"Is Paris burning?" is the question Hitler asked over and over as the French Second and American Fourth Divisions battered their way into the city.

Few moments in history are as stirring as the Allied liberation of Paris. Yet few people are aware of how narrowly, and how miraculously, the city escaped Hitler's secret plan to reduce it to ashes. Is Paris Burning? reconstructs, in meticulous and riveting detail, the network of fateful events, day by day, moment by moment, that saved the City of Light.

Best-selling authors and renowned journalists Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre spent three years researching this stirring book. They drew on French Resistance radio messages, German military records, and secret correspondence between de Gaulle, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Eisenhower. They tracked down and interviewed countless people: soldiers, civilians, Allied generals, and even the Nazi commandant who helped Paris fight for her life. And they re-created the drama, the fervor, and the triumph that heralded one of the most dramatic events of our time.

While I had seen the movie Many years ago - I had not read the book.
Good pace to the story and the narrator does a decent job with the multitude of accents of the participants.
Very moving when Paris is liberated and I found myself appreciative that there was some honor in the German officer corps.
Sad though with all the personal stories of loss -soldiers who didn't live to see the end result - citizens sent off to concentration camps at the very end.
All in all a great book

I first read this book when it was published, and have since gone on to read other books from this author. For me it was a thrilling day by day account of the last days of German Occupation of Paris. It is a real "page turner" and I didn't want to miss a word. Books I enjoy this much I read over and sometimes over again. To find this on audible was a special treat. I highly recommend it to all.

This book is worth the listen, but not a high priority. The underlying book is an interesting one, but the narration gets on the nerves after awhile. Every German sounds like Col. Klink from Hogan's Heroes...same voice, same inflection. It's hard to overlook after awhile!

I decided to revisit this book after reading it decades ago and loving it then. I hoped it had held up over the years. It is STILL a fascinating, sweep-you-along, joyous, heartbreaking tale of the liberation of Paris. Better even the second time, when I could bring maturity to the book

Although this book has been in print for 30 years, I had always assumed Paris was not destroyed because of a decision by Hitler to withdraw his troops, akin to the events in Prague. Perhaps it was my ignorance of the actual events (or was it the excellent narrative) that made this a delightful listening experience. Particularly fascinating was the relationship between the French and American military leadership and the most surprising was the collusion of the German general in charge of Paris with the Allies. Although I was initially put off by the formal British accent of the reader, it grew on me. A great story!

This book has been in my library for more than 30 years without my ever having read it. That was until I moved to Paris for a year and concentrated my reading on Parisian history.

This is the best of the best history of the liberation of Paris, written in an easy to read (and to listen) anectotal style that lets the participants of the events tell the story. I have read the book twice in the last year, and listened to the audio book once. This is a compelling tale of heroes and villians, with some surprises along the way.

Written by an American and a Frenchman, this story is one that needs to be read and remembered by citizens of all countries. Highly recommended for anyone who loves history, or just a good tale told.

As World War II came to a close a variety of groups had plans and strategies for the ensuing months. While we all know how the war ended, the details of these days and story of these players gave me a greater appreciation for their commitments to country and courage. If you enjoy history of this period and haven't read much of the final months specific to the liberation of Paris, I think you will find this book fascinating. This was a fast paced story (as was the march to Paris). The book sets a tone and is so fully detailed that it does seem to place the reader in the midst of these days. Information presented about the Nazi general in Paris and his thoughts about his role were very surprising and gave me new insight. The narration is very good, much as you would expect from a good documentary. Vive le France!

Listened to this as part of a self-imposed history crash course before a trip to Paris. Great book, ageless. I had no clue until about midway thru it (when it occurred to me there is no way these people were still alive to interview) that it was written in the 60s. Couple of downsides - it was extremely hard to follow some of the segments via audio due to all the many players, no map - and my total lack of knowledge around anything related to the military. Also, the narrator was great at character voices, but left a lot to be desired everywhere else. Still very worth it, especially the last of the 3 parts.

It's hard to believe that that this book got written. Collins & Lapierre have left no stone unturned. Everyone, whether a big or a small player in this dramatic story, has been interviewed. As a result, the book is a gripping account not of just the big event - the liberation of Paris - but the hundreds of people involved and their emotions, actions and rationale during the days and weeks leading up to the Allied forces entering the city.

The reader is somewhat arch and this detracts somewhat from the story - but not very much and I wouldn't let that deter you. It's a wonderful tale that reads almost like a novel. And it's very intense.

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